


Devil On The Doorstep

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Series: Bloodlines [4]
Category: G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Gen, Headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-06-06
Packaged: 2017-11-07 02:27:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/425879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, being the little sister is the most difficult job of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devil On The Doorstep

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a personal song fic challenge going on with Random Chick.
> 
> Song used is [We Are -- Ana Johnsson](http://youtu.be/S1o3aHf5JLQ)

_What about the world today_  
What about the place that we call home  
We’ve never been so many  
And we’ve never been so alone 

 

Shana hadn’t been sure what she was going to do after she finished school, but after losing her older brother, she decided to go into the military. That decision hadn’t pleased her sister, and it hurt her that there was a rift now between her and her big sister. She knew that part of it was because Ana was afraid of losing her like they had lost Rex, but that didn’t make it any easier. She dove into her basic training with a single-minded determination.

The good thing was that even with her decision to go into the military, she still kept up with her schooling. Ana could be proud of her for at least doing that, she hoped.

To her surprise, she discovered that she was really good at learning all there was to know about whatever weapon she was training on. One of her commanding officers said that she had a natural affinity for weapons. It was something that made her proud of herself in her own right. 

Weapons training was something that she had chosen for herself. All of her other schooling and hobbies had been things that were chosen for her or suggested by others for her to follow. Her father had been a lawyer and it was thought that she and Ana would follow in his footsteps. The idea of going into law school had often felt like a skin that was just too ill-fitting for her.

To be fair, she had started questioning her goals and plans before Rex was killed, but his death had galvanized her into making a different decision about her future. 

To keep her “safe”, Ana had told her not to come home for their brother’s funeral. She didn’t want her last surviving sibling to end up getting hurt or killed because of Rex’s unit. Shana had argued with her because she knew what Ana had told her about Rex’s death in the beginning. It had been a case of poor timing in an intelligence operation.

However, Ana had been adamant that Shana could be in danger. Not wanting to add any extra stress to her big sister’s mind, Shana had agreed to stay at school. It wasn’t an easy decision and it had hurt like hell, but Shana would have done anything for Ana.

Halfway through her junior year of college, Shana was recruited for a special military unit based on her weapons proficiency and her skill with computers.

It was the first time she ever made a conscious decision to hide something from her sister, and she had never felt so alone.

 

_You keep talking but it makes no sense_  
You say we’re not responsible  
But we are, we are … 

 

The main sticking point over Shana being in the military was the subject of responsibility.

Even through the phone, Ana was able to make herself sound both infuriated and surprised by what she had started to call Shana’s naiveté. (It had started out being called her innocence, but after several phone calls all ended in the same result, her sister had changed her terminology.)

“There are bad things that are happening all over the world, Ana,” Shana pointed out over and over again. “With all of the training I’m receiving, I could make a difference.”

“Bad things always happen to people, little sister. We can’t stop them from happening by putting on a uniform and carrying a gun.”

“We can’t stop _all_ of them from happening, I agree. But if me being in the right place at the right time could save lives, then I owe it to myself and everyone else to do something about it.”

“You sound so like Rex, Shana.”

“Rex believed in the military and in his service, Ana,” Shana pleaded. “You know how much it meant to him. Why am I supposed to be any different?”

“The military got our brother killed,” Ana snapped. “His beliefs and ideals couldn’t save him from that air strike when Duke screwed up.”

“Exactly. Duke screwed up and got Rex killed, not the military. Rex was just doing his job and it was his team that failed him, not the military as a whole.”

“At least we agree for you to see sense over the involvement of Duke.”

“Ana, have I ever argued with you about how much Duke is to blame for getting Rex killed and for abandoning you when you needed him the most?”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Ana muttered through the phone line. “I didn’t expect you to ever absolve the United States military for their involvement in our brother’s death.”

“I don’t absolve them, Ana,” Shana said tiredly. “You know that. I just don’t hold the entire organization responsible for the fact that one unit are assholes. I won’t even be assigned to that unit.”

“Thank god I was able to convince you to register everywhere under mom’s maiden name so no one could link you to Rex.”

Originally, Shana had thought that Ana’s insistence on getting her last name legally changed had been a bit of paranoia, but to make her sister feel better about her safety, she had gone through with it.

“Do you really think that someone from Rex’s old unit would actually harm me if they found out who I was?”

“I think that Duke and his unit would do anything they could in order to make sure that no one revealed how badly they screwed up on that deployment,” Ana said bitterly. “I refuse to allow Duke to kill my last remaining family.”

“He believes that Rex was your only family, Ana.” Shana’s voice was quiet, but there was none of the lingering hurt she had felt when she had found out that Ana and Rex hadn’t told their friends about her. She had realized that her siblings were a little paranoid when it came to her and her safety. She never thought there was a reason to be, but her being the baby meant that she didn’t get a say when they started creating smoke screens to hide her presence after their parents were killed.

“And to make sure I don’t have to stand over your grave, too, we’re going to keep it that way.”

“Yes, big sister, we’ll keep it that way.”

 

_See the devil on the doorstep now …_  
Fail to recognize the enemies within …  
Lining up for the grand illusion  
No answers for the questions asked … 

 

When Ana disappeared off the radar of everyone else, it was Shana who found her.

It was Shana who realized who The Baroness really was.

In doing so, she was determined to do what she could to protect her sister without betraying her team and what she believed in.

It wasn’t her father who taught her to win every fight. Her sister taught her that.

Now, she had to make sure that she continued to win every fight she went into because one day, her sister’s life might just depend on it.

In losing her brother and then her sister, she would have lost part of herself, too. She would do anything she could within the realms of her job to make sure that nothing happened to her sister.

Just like Ana didn’t ask her questions about her work and what she was doing, Shana didn’t ask her about her activities.

Some things were more important than rules, but when Ana showed up on the site trying to steal what Shana’s unit was there to protect, Shana had to force herself to keep her head in the game. She couldn’t bring herself to fire on her sister, but she could attack her sister’s men.

She was confident that she was the only one who knew her sister’s secret until she heard a male voice yelling at Ana to drop the case.

She didn’t even have to see her sister’s reaction to know that it was Duke.

Duke was the one that her team had come to aid of. 

This definitely had the potential to end really badly.

 

_It’s all about power then_  
Take control  
Breaking the rules  
Breaking the soul… 


End file.
